Chapter 1 - Pick It Up
"PICK IT UP."
Morgane Vale dumped her entire lunch at my feet. Spaghetti hit the tile, followed by a bruised apple and a splash of watery sauce. Two hundred women watched from steel tables while the most feared inmate in Redhaven Correctional grinned down at me.
"Welcome to your new home, sweetheart. You can eat when you learn manners."
Somebody laughed. Somebody else pushed my tray away. My hands were shaking, but I held them at my sides. I hadn't come here to win a fight over lunch.
"You heard her," a heavyset woman said. "Get on your knees."
Morgane wore her dark hair braided tight, with a scar running through one eyebrow. Everyone had warned me about her. She controlled the good seats, the laundry schedule, and the right to breathe.
"No," I said.
Her smile vanished. She stepped close enough that I could smell burnt coffee on her breath. "What was that?"
I looked straight into her face and spoke the five numbers my sister had whispered into her phone the night she vanished.
"Two-four-seven-zero-one."
The laughter stopped so fast I heard the exhaust fan above the kitchen. Morgane's eyes darted to the security camera by the serving hatch.
"Where did you hear that?" she whispered.
"My sister's last message. Her name was Leah Ellis."
Morgane's fork fell from her hand.
"Never say that number again," she said, almost without moving her mouth.
"Why? Is it a prisoner? A cell?"
"It's not an inmate number." She caught my wrist and pretended to shove me toward the mess. "It's the number they put on the paperwork when they want someone to disappear."
The dining-room door opened. Deputy Warden Lyle Fitch entered with two officers. Morgane released me instantly. Fitch's gaze traveled from the spaghetti on the floor to my face.
May you like
"Ellis," he said. "Medical has been waiting for you."
I hadn't requested a medical appointment. And the smile on his face told me he already knew what I'd said.
